Italy Unruffled by Ferrari Glitch

Italy's sporting press was left unruffled by Ferrari's failure to finish among the top three at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, which ended a 53-race series of podium finishes.

"If it's true that boredom kills off even the greatest love affairs, this new wind that blows from Australia is a blessed one," read the frontpage of Gazzetta dello Sport today.

"The unbeatable Ferrari has lost a Grand Prix. (Michael) Schumacher has shown himself to be vulnerable and the pit staff have blotted their perfect copy book," it continued, blaming Ferrari's failure on human error rather than rule changes introduced by the sport's governing body, the FIA.

"Ferrari lost because its drivers made mistakes, which is more a tribute to the unpredictability of sport than a criticism of the two drivers," said the paper, before going on to list the moments where the team had slipped up.

Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello ruled himself out of the race on the starting grid by incurring a time-penalty for jumping the gun. Ferrari's pit crew had botched a wheel change and the drivers had selected the wrong type of tyres.

Brilliantly Defended

Above all, Michael Schumacher was kept off the podium by McLaren's Finnish driver, Kimi Raikkonen, who brilliantly defended his third place from the World Champion in the closing stages of the race.

"The more time passes, the more this insignificant Finn with the robotic voice grows in stature," said Gazzetta.

Considering all the mistakes he and his team had made, Schumacher should regard fourth place as "an honour, even if the drivers in front are (David) Coulthard, (Juan Pablo) Montoya and Raikkonen", it concluded.

Schumacher's analysis of the race was much the same.

"It wasn't the car's fault. The Ferrari F2002 is still a winning machine," he was quoted as saying in Gazzetta.

Ferrari's team manager, Jean Todt, meanwhile, preferred to look forward to the Malaysian Grand Prix later this month.

"We've got to get straight to work to try to win the next race," he said. "The one positive thing is that the F2002 is still competitive. Soon we'll have the F2003-GA, which has greater potential. This time, however, we weren't the strongest."